Back in the day, if you were going to build a custom set of wheels, chances were pretty good you’d be surrounding them with Mavic’s alloy rims. Over the years, they’ve continued to offer those, updating them with their latest tech, machining tricks and designs, even if complete wheels have mostly take over. Now, though, they’re bringing their real latest and greatest to the custom wheel building market: Carbon fiber.

Four Mavic carbon rims will be offered, the Open Pro Carbon UST Disc, and the CXP Pro Carbon UST in both rim and disc brake versions. Quick specs are:

CXP Pro Carbon UST Disc

450g

19mm internal / 28mm external / 45mm deep

20/24/28/32 hole options

CXP Pro Carbon UST

425g

19mm internal / 25mm external / 25mm deep

20/24/28/32 hole options

Open Pro Carbon UST Disc

405g

21mm internal / 27mm external / 32mm deep

20/24/28/32 hole options

Open Pro Carbon UST

425g

19mm internal / 25mm external / 25mm deep

20/24/28/32 hole options

All are tubeless ready and ship with tape, valve stems and nipple washers. All three start shipping in April 2019, $499.99 each. Rim brake models get the laser-etched braking surface and they recommend their brake pads, but those aren’t included.

The point? To give riders options. Their high end wheels will still use their Zicral or stainless elliptical or bladed spokes, but they know that some people want to build with other things. And they know that using standard spokes (or letting people build with standard spokes) increases user friendliness in some situations. So, in addition to the rims…

…they’re also making standalone hubs. They’ll use traditional flanges for J-bend spokes, with rim brake versions available in 20h front/24h rear, and disc brake versions with 24/28/32 hole options.

The rear will use their ID360 engagement mechanism (you can learn more about that in our recent AASQ installments with Mavic – Part 1 and Part 2), and both front and rear will use their QSM wave washer system to automatically maintain proper bearing preload.

Price and weights are TBD, these will come a little later this summer, but Mavic’s rep said they’ll be light…they’re aimed at the high end.

The Open Pro alloy rim is still available and looks sleeker then ever.

Prototype Carbon Mavic Gravel Wheels

These prototype carbon gravel wheels are coming this year, probably in summer, and they wouldn’t say anything about them just yet. But they’re out for all to see, and they look plenty wide.

They gave the 700×40 Yksion Elite Allroad XL tires a nice round profile. The bottom set is 650B with a WTB Resolute 42.

They’ll use Mavic’s proprietary direct-pull bladed spoke design with the QSM/ID360 hubs. More on these as they get closer to launch.

Read about that today, sold to a US investment fund. So the sensible engineering influence of the Finns is about to go out the window in favour of cost cutting, although I hope my cynicism is misplaced. ENVE stays with Amer though, wonder where Amer’s stated desire to get out of cycling will leave them.

Excited to see this. Hope to get some customers wanting me to build them a set, or maybe siphon off some rent money and do a set for myself eventually. Mavic carbon rims laced to some fun hubs would be awesome.

Excellent news! Already use Open Pro UST Disc Alloy and they look damn sexy. The Carbon version also seems to be a good consideration for endurance/marathon bikes where you don’t need to think about your wheels if is getting bumpy.

Elbows in or out is a subjective matter. Cases suggesting one side of a rear disc hub different from the other side completely ignore the fact that torque is effectively transmitted across the hub shell.
The only sound reason I’ve heard for lacing a particular way for rear discs pertained to spoke clearance to the brake caliper under braking and clearance to the derailleur when in the easiest gear.

Apparently not so subjective because the vast majority of mfg’s and custom wheel builders lace disc side leading spoke elbows out and trailing spoke heads, for disc brake force reasons. Elbows out leading creates a wider triangle with more support crossing underneath the trailing spoke. Additionally the disc side flange of this new Mavic hub has bad geometry. It’s beveled, so the leading spoke elbows are free floating. Blow up the picture and look. Ideally weak side (non drive side) rear flanges you want the elbow in contact with the flange for better bracing, makes for a stronger and more stable structure (think DT). Especially when the weak side is transmitting disc brake forces.

Years ago, we would lace the rear wheel such that the spokes would tend to lift the chain out of the hub, in case the rear derailleur malfunctioned and sent the chain into the spokes. If laced incorrectly, the spokes would suck the chain in, causing a lot of damage to the spokes, and making it difficult to pull the chain out from where it got sucked in.

Regarding the lacing pattern, the lacing pattern is not necessarily wrong. The spokes are mirrored which is most important i.e. the trailing and leading spokes are matched on both sides. That being said, the trailing spoke being head in does potentially pose a problem for drive trains whose jockey pulleys are already very close to the spokes when in the lowest gear. The reason being is as the wheel is being pulsed the trailing spoke is pulling the leading spoke closer to the derailleur where as if the wheel had been laced so that the trailing spoke was head out then the trailing spoke would be pulling the spokes inward away from the derailleur.
Regarding torsional loading i.e. pedal input versus brake input, the kinetic energy stored in a wheel that needs to be stopped is much greater than an all out sprint. Especially if it is choppy breaking conditions as the spikes would be much greater.

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